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DEUTSCHE BANK CHAMPIONSHIPAugust 28, 2013Martin KaymerNORTON, MASSACHUSETTS JOHN BUSH: We'd like to welcome Martin Kaymer into the interview room here at the Deutsche Bank Championship. He played his way into this tournament last week with his finish at the Barclays, and he is currently No. 90 in the FedExCup standings. Martin, welcome to the Deutsche Bank Championship for the first time, if we can get some comments on being here. MARTIN KAYMER: Yes, it's the first time, obviously. I haven't been here. I haven't played the golf course yet. I had a couple of days off in New York after the tournament, because I played a lot of golf the last few weeks, pretty much since the British Open, I'm trying to qualify for the next week. Obviously I was into Firestone and PGA. But in order to qualify for the first FedExCup tournament I needed to play fairly decent. Then I played Greensboro in order to get into last week. I needed to play last week to get into this week. So it's a lot of‑‑ a little bit of pressure that I haven't felt for the last five or six years in order to qualify to tournaments, because I was always qualifying. Q. Sort of talking about that, you've obviously been in contention in Majors before. You were heavily involved in the Ryder Cup last year. How do you compare the pressure you've faced the last month to maybe those two things? MARTIN KAYMER: Well, you know, Majors, and World Golf Championship events, Ryder Cups, that is something very, very special. If I would miss out to qualify for a tournament here, it's a shame, but it's okay. I'm sure I'm going to have a few more chances in the future. But in the past I was qualified for everything, I never needed to worry about it. And of course, you know, as long as you're in the top 50 in the world there's no problem. But FedExCup is a little bit different. It's my first year pretty much on my‑‑ let's say full season playing on the PGA Tour, and I was traveling a lot and I need to adjust a few things this year. So playing‑wise I haven't performed the way I wanted in America. So that's why I always felt a little bit more pressure, especially the last four or five weeks, because I wanted to go all the way to the FedExCup, play as long as possible, and get as much experience as possible for the next few years. Q. What sort of prompted you to commit to playing over here full‑time and trying to play in the playoff season here? MARTIN KAYMER: Well, I'm sure you follow the European Tour, the PGA Tour, and the other Tours worldwide, and the best players in the world, they come here. You want to be part of the FedExCup, you want to play the big tournaments, compete against the best in the world to earn more World Ranking points, to compare yourself to them, and become a more complete player. If I stayed only in Europe and only came over here for the World Golf events or the majors, that's not the way I want to play golf. I want to play the biggest tournaments and experience it as well, to get to know the American culture a little bit more, how I feel being here more often. And then, yeah, I just get to know a different golf course, it suit my eye, suit my game, and then adjust my schedule for the next two or three years. Q. I assume you're also playing for the Race to Dubai this year? MARTIN KAYMER: Yeah, I do, yeah. Q. How difficult is it, we're in late August now, it feels like the season is winding down, the majors are over and you're in the thick of the FedExCup, and you have the Race to Dubai coming up afterwards. It's sort of this never ending schedule. You mentioned playing a lot of tournaments, how tired are you and how much do you need a break at some point, too? MARTIN KAYMER: Well, the good thing is you don't need to spend that much time on the range any more. If you keep playing you don't need to practice as much, because you're in it anyways. The majors is one thing, that is, obviously for all of us, the biggest goal, with only four chances. And once the majors are gone, there's still big tournament tournaments, but it's not a Major. But still the tournaments that we play year to year, they become so big, you know, now we have the FedExCup, big tournaments every week. Then I go back to Europe, big tournaments until pretty much November. So it's a really exciting time and a good time to pick up wins, pick up World Ranking points, and gain some confidence. So it's just a matter of time that I will perform the way I want to, because I practice a lot. I did a lot the last three or four months. And I feel good. Everything has to come together. It's just really an exciting time. I'm not tired. I'm very excited to play, because that's why I want to qualify for as many tournaments as possible. Because it's a fun time for me. I learn a lot right now. Q. I just wanted to ask you a follow‑up on a completely unrelated note. Rory McIlroy is the defending champion here. You got to No.1 at a fairly young age and you sort of dealt with more attention, being in the spotlight more, can you understand and sympathize with what he's been going through this year? MARTIN KAYMER: I don't think he really plays that bad. I think everybody really makes it worse. At the end of the day, it's not always about golf, you know. Golf is a very small part. And you have to‑‑ your life is changing when you become that successful. Then when he signed a new contract it was in all the media. Everybody knows how much money he got. Then people talk about it. So the focus of the actual golf, you can, like, lose. But not because of yourself, because of the media, the fans, the social media, Twitter, Facebook, all that stuff, everybody talks to you. Everybody gives you their opinion without even asking them. So it does make a difference, because it makes you think. Even though you force yourself not to look at Facebook, Twitter, you do, because it's kind of part of your job and part of your life, unfortunately sometimes. And I think you get distracted a lot and you lose the focus a little bit. But at the end of the day it will take some time to get used to it and to the adjustment and some players, they grow up with it, since they are two, three, four, five years old, to have cameras around them all the time and some don't. And they might need a little bit longer, so it's okay. I'm not too worried about Rory, because I think he has very nice parents. He's a very mature person already and I believe he knows what's important in life. And I think he will sort things out and will win big tournaments again. Q. Because of your position coming into this tournament looking forward to next week, will you be scoreboard watching and seeing where you stand against the other players? MARTIN KAYMER: I believe after every round you have to look at it, what position you're in. But my brother is very good at math and he said you have to finish top 24. And then you should be okay. And so that's my goal. I trust him on his counting, his math skills. So that's the goal, to finish as high as possible, obviously. And I think you shouldn't only set the goal to get into next week. You should set the goal a little bit higher. You don't just want to get there. I made the mistake last week that after making the cut it was pretty much a done deal that I would play here this week. And then I lost a little bit of the focus, because that was my main goal, going into last week to get into this week, and that shouldn't be the case. The case should be a lot higher, that you don't do the mini one, you should do the maximum one. I come here to win, to play good golf, to gain confidence and hopefully finish in the top 24 then. Q. How do you view the system? You're on the outside looking in. You're saying in the later events this season you had to play your way just to get into the playoffs.  How do you assess that, do you think it's a fair system? MARTIN KAYMER: Well, it's complicated. But at the end of the day, I don't think it's perfect yet. I think it was when Bill Haas, when he won, he needed the playoff in order to win the FedExCup, because if he would have won he would have not won the FedExCup. So he needed the playoff for the shared points, I believe. So if you win, you don't win the whole thing, but if you play worse and get in the playoff you win the whole thing. So that's a little bit of an awkward situation there. So it's not perfect yet, but I think every year, when we talk about it, maybe we can help them and they figure it out. It's a great thing already, but I believe it gets better every year. Q. Going back to kind of the No.1 topic you've talked about when you were No.1, not being comfortable with the spotlight and the attention and that sort of thing, and you had a bit of a slump, for lack of a better word, afterward. What was sort of the turning point for you to get back to playing the kind of golf where you felt confident and comfortable again? And specifically you mentioned changes you made this year? MARTIN KAYMER: You have to focus on the main thing again, and not on stuff that has nothing to do with golf, really. At the end of the day you have the golf ball, the clubs, and you play golf. It's a game that you play. But other people put a lot of pressure on you. The expectations are very high. And I lost a little bit of focus. I lost a little bit the meaning and the attitude why I play golf. It was not that much fun anymore. It was enjoyable, but I always felt rushed. Coming to the golf tournaments, everybody wants something from you. You really need to plan things. And that was not the way it used to be. So it took some time to adjust. And now I know how it feels and it's okay. But it was hard at the beginning, which is fairly normal, I think. And I have many, many years ahead of me, so I can change a few things, if I would like to. And if other people don't agree, you became No. 1 in the world with the golf swing, you won a Major, you did this and this, yeah, why changing? It's not that important always what other people think. It's more important what you believe in. And I have plenty of time to change and I'm not stressing. But other people stress. And I learned not to let it get to me. Q. What changes, you mentioned changes, what changes did you make this year, either on or off the golf course? MARTIN KAYMER: Off the golf course or on the golf course? Q. Either one, on or off? MARTIN KAYMER: On the golf course I have a short game coach since December, Pete Cowen. I did a lot with him over the last six or seven months. And that was always a struggle for me. In the last couple of years I didn't feel very good around the greens. You can see the guys here when they don't play well, let's say the top players, if they don't hit the ball very well, they save it somehow. They play something around par and then the next two or three days they get low scores and they finish in the Top‑10. I was never able to do that, my short game was not good enough. So I did change this. And off the golf course, yeah, you just grow as a person. It's really enjoyable right now. That's why I tried this year to play the PGA Tour, to spend more time in America, if I like it, because I was here from January until the U.S. Open without going back to Europe, so almost four months straight here. And it's very difficult. Other players, they have their families here, when they live in Lake Nona or those places, their family is there, they have kids, whatever. But I did pretty much everything on my own. And it was difficult sometimes. But at the same time it's a great learning experience about yourself and about the culture here compared to the European culture. And for me to plan the next few years. Q. You've still got the Whisper Rock logo on your hat, there aren't any other players in the Top 50 that don't have some type of corporate sponsor logo on the front of their hat. Is it a matter of not finding something else you like or are they sponsoring you, or why do you have that? MARTIN KAYMER: No, they don't sponsor me. It's not always about the money, you know. I want to feel comfortable. I was lucky enough to play good golf the last few years. And I play golf for the reason of winning, to have time to prepare as good as possible, and not do corporate days every week, because that's not why I play golf. I want to enjoy the time that I have off, off the golf course, and not involved in golf again. So it's not a matter of not finding a sponsor. It's just a matter of the right fit. I would like to work with people or‑‑ I don't really call them sponsors, but like a partner. And if we have the same interests and the same goals, then it will be a good fit. But it's not that easy to find. Q. Sounds like you're really looking for a balance, sort of on the course and then off the course. You talked about being in the States here for the four months this year, what sort of things about the culture did you find out during your downtime or you weren't on the golf course that you liked or didn't like? MARTIN KAYMER: I like the lifestyle here, it's very easy. It's very comfortable. Sometimes you get too comfortable, for me. For me as a German, we are usually very organized, very planned, fairly disciplined. And here everything is very relaxed, very easy. It's a good thing to have but in my case, my character is a little bit different. So I needed to adjust a little bit to this in order to feel more comfortable here. But playing‑wise, it was very important for me to play golf courses I'd never played before. So it makes me more‑‑ I can plan better. And I always like to have a plan to know where to go, to be organized. So certain things that really made a difference to me the first four or five months earlier in the year. Yeah, it was I very valuable time. And things change when you do a lot of things by yourself. So it was enjoyable, it was good. It was nothing bad. JOHN BUSH: Martin, we appreciate your time. Good luck this week. MARTIN KAYMER: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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